Max Factor Flipstick Colour Effect Swatches

Max Factor often releases products that are extremely similar to those by its sister brand, Cover Girl (both are owned by Proctor & Gamble). Like the Cover Girl Blast Flipstick, the Max Factor Flipstick Colour Effect features a rich, creamy colour paired with a lighter, iridescent lipstick shade.

Only four color combos are available in Switzerland, versus six in the UK and thirteen for the Cover Girl version in the US.

Top Row (from left): 30 Gypsy Red and 35 Swingy Brown
Bottom Row: 15 Boreal Mauve and 05 Bloomy Pink

These have a lovely texture that glides on very smoothly. The richer shades have very impressive color payoff. The lipstick bullets are quite a bit smaller than normal though, which probably takes some getting used to.

Leighton Denny Vamp

Described as "rouge-noir, deepest red cream", Leighton Denny Vamp is a recent addition to my lacquer stash. I picked this up for a song as a freebie with Red magazine in London. Leighton Denny polishes usually retail for £11 for 12ml and are made in the UK.

On the first coat, Vamp looked more like a reddish berry but with the second and third coats, it becomes more darkened like how it appears in the bottle. I needed three coats to achieve the desired intense finish evenly but at least the formula does apply quite smoothly. I sealed it with Dior Top Coat.

Vamp plays quite well against my skin tone but the magpie in me decided to experiment by layering other shades.


Max Factor Fantasy Fire adds an even layer of micro-fine shimmer.

Nicole by OPI Top of My World shows up as a sprinkling of fine blue glitter.

City That Never Sleeps from Essence Colour 3 Nail Polish 01 Midnight Date adds irregularly shaped green flakes and micro-shimmer.

Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper 08 Night In Vegas contains irregularly shaped holographic flakies that shift from red to orange to green.

The yellow side of Essence Colour 3 Nail Polish 01 It's Two Bright (from the Season of Extremes collection) gives it a rich, shimmery finish and greater depth with larger shimmer particles than Fantasy Fire.

Max Factor Max Effect #45 Fantasy Fire

Of the new Max Factor Max Effect mini nail polishes recently launched in the UK, Fantasy Fire has generated the most buzz. The wonderfully complex hue was an instant hit, with six months' worth of stock being snapped up in just three weeks, according to BritishBeautyBlogger.

It's not difficult to see why as in the bottle, Fantasy Fire has an almost oil slick-like color shift that literally glows yellow/green/purple at the edges. You can read more reviews of Fantasy Fire on Scrangie, A Vain Woman, Le petit jardin de liloo, Makeup Withdrawal.

Made in France, the bottle is tiny, containing just 4.5ml and retails at £3.99.


The brush isn't the most comfortable to hold as it's relatively short, but it does a decent job of covering the nail in a couple of strokes.

The formula applies smoothly without streaking but it is super sheer. And before the nail polish aficionados start lecturing, yes, I've read that Fantasy Fire is meant to be layered over other shades to bring out its fiery intensity (you can see some amazing examples in the blogs linked above). Nevertheless, I decided to try it on its own first just to see how it performs. The pic below shows one coat applied without any base.

With two coats, the red shimmer starts to become more visible.

And with three coats, the purple base is richer but still semi-translucent. It dries down quite nicely within ten minutes. It's not obvious in these pics but the red shimmer sparkles and dances in the light to mesmerizing effect. Definitely a keeper!

Under different lighting conditions, the purple tint appears darker in tone.